ve7sat

Saved all the Pics on the Mods with the carbon fiber arrow,went out and got all the parts,and at 4 in the morning finally finished.Went to the underground parking and with no training skids lifted off,,,It was the best flight I have ever had,landed gently a few times with no pronlems,leveled off at head height and just let her hover for a few minutes.The weight was perfect,no problems of any kind.Ran the battery out and let her sit for a while to cool down and up again,,what a flight,just beautiful.An hour or so saw some kids in the parking area outside so thought I'd give them a bit to talk about.Lifted off and it was beautifull and at about twenty feet saw the breeze start to take it away so tried to get it back my way on pavement but no such luck,,to close to the bushes let it idle down and thought I'd give more throttle close to the ground for a safe landing,not enough throttle,it bounced and sure enough with the tail not being screwed in on the bottom it lifted and got stuck in the blades,,,saw a puff of smoke,broke a lower blade,bent the flybar.In the house replaced the lower blade put a new flybar on and crossed my fingers...Turned on the transmitter powered up the bird and with no throttle the upper blade turned throttle up and no lower blade.Shut everything down and smelled the 4-in-1 and it smelled burnt.So took it out,,and that was a job,,not sure I hurt the motors but on tuesday will visit the toy-store and get new ones.This time will drill a hole and put a screw in the tail arrow so it won't freely be able to move up on a bounce.Can't thank the guys enough for the Mods and with just the nose on painted flat black and the fin at the tail section it looked beautiful and even with the crash and cost I had the best flying so far,,but must remember no breeze for flying,,not till I gat better..Charlie

blax1

Hello Opjose
I took the plunge and purchased the latest G3 Realflight sim-
AMAZING THING!!
I'm really happy with it, only had one go with heli-s so far. Needless to say pranged many times so far!!!
BUT I'm actually getting it together and starting to do some more manuveours, other than just hovering, the interesting thing was, I was on the SIM for two hours and didn't realize how much time had past, it really got me in. I've also done the 13MB upgrade and the improvement is great, it actually made the program must faster, and obviously added more heli-s and air fields etc.
So far so good, It should give me a lot more confidence when i fly the T-Rex,
looking forward to that,
Cheers Ralph

sfari_dave

Insane crash!! New problem.


I made all of the adjustments you guys said and the heli flew like new. I took it outside on a windless day and flew it over the hill in my backyard. Down the hill.. up the hill... it was so fun. Then I hit a power line about 25 feet off the ground. Down came helicopter. I think it hit on the nose becasue the canopy is cracked in the nose area (I had earlier performed surgery on the canopy cutting flits in it to reduce heat buildup. This let to reduced structural support and more damage IMO).

Issue: Ever since the crash the bird acts like it's nearly out of battery power even with a full charge (and trying both my batteries). It acts seriously underpowered. It does not yaw and is no harder to control than normal, just no power.

What's up experts?

Psikelly

Start by checking all the mechanics such as rotors, rotor head, main shafts etc, Make sure both rotors can rotate freely turning them by hand.Nice and loosely as well.Thats about the 1st thing you should check. Look for any wobble when the rotors turn under power. If you find anything kind of wonky with these couple things post back here again.

sfari_dave

No there is absolutely no wobbling or binding of any kind. Nothing appears broken or bent. The blades are in perfect condition.

Psikelly

Can you hear any odd sounds coming from your motors when you power up?? Screeching, squealing, grinding etc....

I forgot to ask if you can at least hover it or will it lift at all??

ct420

If you're sure that the mechanical components are OK with no binding, etc., then my guess would be that 1 or both motors' brushes got burned in the crash. This has happened to me on my BCP with both the main and tail motors following a crash.

If the motor can't turn while there is power on it, even for a split second, the brushes in the motors can become damaged. The motor will still work, but will have much less power when this occurs.

sfari_dave

There is a light squeeling sound but it's always been there.

Yes it will hover just fine. But it acts like it out of batteries from the start (and I have tried two different batteries). Is it possible the 4-1 was damaged? I cut the power the second it hit the powerline so I do not think that it had power on the motors at all afterward.

shhhhucantcme

When the heli hit the power line did you see the skeleton. LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Mark
Keep it in the air, not in the garbage can!

choppersrule

sfari_dave


Check your swash plate and make sure it hasn't seperate, if it has. Just press them back together with needle nose pliers,

Dave / Choppersrule

sfari_dave

What and where is the swash plate?

choppersrule

sfari_dave,

It adjusts the angle of the rotor blades with each revolution of the hub. The adjustability is provided by a device called the swash plate assembly.

Turn on your tranmitter, then plug battery into the heli. Keep Throttle all the way down.

Now move the right stick forward, backward, left and right. You see the servo linkage moving up and down, they are hooked to the swash plate. This is a two piece assembly, look closely at it. As mentioned earlier, if sperated, press them back together with some needle nose pliers.

How this helps,

Dave / Choppersrule

sfari_dave

The swash plate you mentioned is intact and in one piece.

I have more information: The heli has full power for a short period of time (or something near full power). Then after it's in the air for 30 seconds or so it loses power until it cannot sustain a hover. When I let it sit for 30 seconds or so it again has full power (or nearly) and will fly, repeating the pattern above until the battery is dead.

Remember I have two batteries and before the crash everything worked fine on the power side of things.

Psikelly

That kinda sounds like motors heating up to me. 1st of all, do you have a heat sink on your motors??Also a hole cut in the canopy right in front of the motors helps cool them a lot too. If overheated motors ARE your problem then I think its too late and the damage is done. The motors will cost you like 20 bucks for the pair of them so at least theyre cheap.

Its early in the morning and my brain is runnin kinda slow but I think theres only a couple possibles here. Bad motors or a bad 4 in 1. I would try the new motors 1st. Way cheaper.

How long have you had the heli and used them motors??? Its quite possible they were getting a little tired and that last crash just wore them out.

sfari_dave

I have the heat sink and holes in the canopy. Wouldn't motor wear effect yaw? I leaning toward the 4-1 but cannot get over that the issue comes and goes. It's there only after the heli has been running for 30 seconds or so. The it slowly dies and lands itself. If I let it sit for 20 seconds it's back to full power for another 10-20 seconds and then dies. I would think battery pack unless I had two - which I do. Same for both.

choppersrule

sfari_dave,

If you have 20 hours or more on the motors, then it's time to replace both. They aren't really high tech for 10 bucks each.

Dave / Choppersrule

ct420

I doubt it's the 4 in 1. I suppose it's possible, but unlikely, I think...

I have had similar problems with my Lama2 in the past, and it was always 1 of 3 things:

1. weak batteries
2. weak motors
3. mechanical binding


In that order...

Psikelly

Its really possible that both motors are wearing out at the same speed as well. It doesnt happen a lot but with the amount of people that post on here about weak motors and stuff a problem like yours has to come along sooner or later. Its really quite possible thats whats happened. Rare maybe but it happens.

sfari_dave

I'm willing to replace whatever is broken. It does not appear to be binding in the slightest. I was thinking something was overheating after about 30 seconds of flight. Something that can reduce performance and after "resting" for 30 seconds can go to full performance again for another 20 seconds or so.

I little twist: I noticed yesterday that one of the leads from the main connection to the battery was slightly dislodged. It was sporadically cutting power, but oddly only after I landed and not in flight. Repairing the wire fixed that problem but not the main issue of underpowered flight.

I just want to stress that the heli can get full power for about 30 seconds. Then after a 30 second rest it can get full power again but for a shorter period.

I will replace the motors today or tomorrow.

I'm wondering if there could have been some kind of bind during the crash so slight that is only appears when the hot. A bearing needing oil or replacement?

Psikelly

Well a little oil never hurts. I lube mine a bit every few flights.
Another thing you may want to check before replacing your motors are the leads for the battery plug in that come out of the 4 in 1. I know you said you fixed them but, look closely for burned or broken wires. When I say broken I mean this> notice when you strip a ire that theres many smaller wires woven to make that 1 large wire. If theres say 20 strands to make up the large 1 then if say 6 of those 20 are broken or burned off then that reduces the amount of power that can go throught that wire. It will still TRY pull all that power but it means that your wires will run hot as well. Once this starts it can and usually will lead to further burning of wire. So look close and make sure that all the wires are still in mint shape and replace any that arent.

blax1

Hello Choppersrule,
Do you know if you can GO brushless, I know you can home brew it , but is there a commercial option from a heli shop?
Any info- greatly appreciated!!
Cheers Ralph

fossoman

Hey Ive had this problem with losing power and you let it sit and It flys again for a short time its the battery dude. My oldest battery died this slow death I was able to revive my second oldest battery which was doing the same with the astro flight blinky Li Po balancer
and not running it for more than five minutes and charging balancing and charging took about 5 or six of these cycles to bring it back to life now its good for 8 to ten minutes of flight time.

Psikelly

For anyone who tries what Im going to post here you do it at your own risk and I hold no responsibility for any negative effects. Disclaimer.

I only use lipos but my charger has 3 settings. Lipo nicad and nmh I once discharged a lipo WAY too far and was sure it was dead. A buddy gave me a tip and it saved my battery.
This is what to do.

1st I put the lipo on the charger and set the charge as if I was charging a NMH on trickle. like .3 Charge it like this for like 2 hours BUT KEEP A VERY CLOSE EYE ON THE BATTERY. Any swelling etc and take it off.

After 2 hours if its still looking good then check it with a meter. If the charge is up again then trickle charge it on lipo for 12 hours.
If the charge is still low then charge for another 1-2 hours on NMH . After this the charge should be up enough to start on the lipo setting. But you REALLY need to keep a close eye on it. These batteries arent cheap and I believe theyre worth trying to save.
This procedure does work but its not guaranteed to work all the time. If the battery is ust too drained it may be lost

ct420

I have heard similar things from others as well. This procedure seems to work well, but of course, you need to do it very carefully. As Psikelly said, watch it closely, and disconnect it if it starts to swell even the slightest bit. If you hear a loud 'pop' at any point (like a balloon bursting), then grab your fire extinguisher, and start running. It will blow within 1-5 minutes after the 'pop' most likely.

The day I got my first lipo, I went down to Target and bought a couple of cheap fire extinguishers. I keep them around at all times. I would recommend that you do this outside, or inside an ammo can, and be ready for a fire, just in case... If you take the necessary precautions, this could be done quite safely...


I personally have not tried it, but I am very careful not to deplete my lipos any more. I did ruin a few in the beginning with my Lama2, but now I know when to stop based on how it feels when it's flying.

I have a 1320 in my BCP, and have to stop due to motor heat (I live in Texas) way before it runs out. I just always charge while cooling, so it never gets more than about 1/2 way drained...



If you run the lipo in a BCX, Lama2, or similar to the point that the heli can't hover higher than about 1 or 2 ft., even just once, that will almost always kill or damage the battery. I did it with my first one on the first flight [&o]

Psikelly

This procedure will usually work if youve accidentally over discharged your batteryonce, maybe twice or POSSIBLY 3 times. But if youre continually doing it then I dont know that anyting would help. If yourheli hovers nicely at say 3 quarter throttle and you notice that you have to slowly start raising the throttle to keep hovering then you need to set it down and re charge. Its real important to get the feel for when your battery is running low.